John Bonnett

I believe Ian Faulds has a number of GT6 tachos that he has converted to electronic operation. Drop me a PM and I'll pass on his email address to you. John

Indeed Pete; not something you'd wish to repeat. Even Canley offer the same part number. Looks like I'll be drilling the heads and wiring. I'm very grateful for your advice because it is not something I would have given any thought to.

A good call Pete. They look like standard bolts with separate star washers. If I can't source the correct ones I'll drill the heads and wire them. Thank you very much foir the heads up. A couple of pictures attached. The rear suspension is now finished and brake and fuel lines clipped to the chassis. regards John

Thank you for the advice Pete. I'll check one this very afternoon. John

As a result of unbelievable stupidity on my part that I'm too ashamed to share with you I have lost a couple of days getting the build started. But, all behind me now and we are off. After less than three hours, the rear suspension is pretty much there. I used my own method to attach the spring but, approved or not, it worked very easily. The three pictures show the way it was done. Once all together, the spring will be wrapped in Denso tape which will keep the graphite grease in and the water out. More as it happens.

Newton Commercial make the moulded carpet and the quality of the product and their workmanship is absolutely excellent. Compared with normal carpet, it is the most expensive option but in my view the best and certainly the easiest to fit. The moulded pieces fit perfectly to the wheel arches, A post and the heel board. James Paddock may well sell it at the cheapest price but certainly worth shopping round.

Thank you Aaron, I certainly will. I collected the chassis today from the powder coaters so I'm almost ready to begin the final build up.

I seriously considered getting one but when I discovered that professional car thieves have detector and blocking devices what was the point?

I'm still waiting for the chassis but have been putting the time to good use. I've got the windscreen washer system assembled so that's another job that can be ticked off. I'm using a late 1500 Spitfire steering column with the wipers/washers on the left hand stalk. Quite modern really. So I have the benefit of an electric pump which is a big advantage over the manual one. Although not everything is in place, all the mounts are now in for the components that fit onto the scuttle shelf with the exception of the Filter King which will wait until the body is on the chassis and the engine in. The sharp eyed amongst you may have spotted the inertia switch which will give a lot of peace of mind. As I mentioned before, I'm using an Astra MK4 header tank and this has the benefit of a coolant level sensor. So, all progressing well.

I used Phoenix Screens to put a new screen in complete with the stainless trim. They fitted the trim before putting the screen in. However, I know there are folk who can fit the trim last. Phoenix did a cracking job, they came out and charged £125 plus VAT to supply and fit; money well spent.

It was a bit like that Pete. There were times during the wiring that I felt totally brain dead and despite having my own circuit diagram to follow, I still managed to poke quite a number of the little barbed terminals in the wrong slots. It's a relief that the hard bit is done and that all the circuits work on the bench. The decision to separate the fuse and and relay boxes with plugs and sockets worked out really well and has made handling, and will make fitting, so much easier. For the first time I'm using thinwall cable which is available in the standard colour coding and to my mind is a big improvement over the PVC cable. A friend of mine on the Locost site has just had his car failed at IVA and one of the items was incorrect wiring of the rear fog light. He'd wired it through the side lights when it should only come on with the head lights. I was going to do exactly the same as he did so his misfortune has come at a very good time for me to make the necessary changes; all very easy at this stage. I'm hoping for some serious progress next week as soon as the chassis comes back. I'll keep you posted.

Slow progress over the last week because the wiring cannot be hurried. I've built a bespoke system that is fully protected by individually fused circuits and all the high current components actuated via relays. Many hours have gone into the build and I've lost count of the number of terminals I've had to solder on. But hopefully the time will have been well spent and will ensure reliable operation and ease of fault finding if and when necessary. Alongside the loom build I've been fitting the components to the scuttle including the wiper motor, master cylinders and the header tank. The header tank is necessary because I'm using a Golf radiator rather than a Spitfire or GT6 unit. The header tank (MK4 Astra) has a low coolant level sensor which is a very useful feature being able to flag up a problem before the water temperature goes dangerously high. I've fitted a T7 modular heater because it is small, lightweight and has a good output. And also because I don't have the OE Smiths heater. It has gone in nicely and in conjunction with the bulkhead adapter it's a neat installation. The chassis is due back from the powder coaters early next week so the final build will commence very soon.